L.A. Continues to Prove Why It's the City of Champions (and Future Champions)...

ESPN

Last Saturday, Los Angeles sports fans were in an extremely jubilant mood when two exciting events occurred in baseball and basketball that day: all-star pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani joining the Los Angeles Dodgers for next season, and the Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Indiana Pacers, 123-109, in Las Vegas to win the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament...aka the NBA Cup!

Ohtani, who played with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from 2018 to this recent season, will join the Dodgers in 2024 to the tune of $700 million for 10 years. However, Ohtani will only make $2 million a year over the next decade (for a total of $20 million, since I like to unnecessarily spell things out)...as he is deferring the remaining $680 million till after his contract is up in 2034.

This contract set-up allows the Dodgers to spend money on acquiring other players that will hopefully help Ohtani win a World Series title with this team before the end of the deal...such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the current pitcher for Japan's Orix Buffaloes.

In regards to the Lakers, they resume regular season play tomorrow (against the Dallas Mavericks) after going undefeated in seven games to win the In-Season Tournament. As hoped for, the Lake Show will raise a championship banner for the NBA Cup during a home game (against the New York Knicks) at Crypto.com Arena on Monday, December 18!

And yes, this makes up for the Los Angeles Football Club losing the Major League Soccer championship to the Columbus Crew, 1-2, in Ohio two days ago. That is all.


NBA.com